Winter's last blast (at least I hope it's the last) hit Lunenburg just as we were coming home from a couple of weeks in St. Lucia. Still, it's sunny today and Environment Canada is calling for a warmer than normal spring. YAY!
One of the ways Canadians escape the cold is to head south and we'll be doing just that come May. We've just learned that Eight Winds has been nominated for Best Instrumental Album - Acoustic in the Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) 2015 Awards. It came as quite a surprise because the CD has only been out for a short time. It broke into the ZMR chart in November at number 41 and has since risen to number 17 in the January charts. Eight Winds made it on to the shortlist for the award by getting into the November chart and we were very pleasantly suprised to hear from ZMR that it is one of 5 nominees for the award.
Thanks are due to David Findlay for his excellent job of production and
to Duncan Woodcock for co-writing three of the songs and lending his
finger-style playing to the tracks on the CD. The competition will be stiff - the other nominees are also great albums. Of course it's an honour to be nominated and it would be an even greater moment on the musical journey if we should win.
Also, a great vote of thanks is due to all the radio program hosts who have been featuring Eight Winds on their shows and who chose the CD in the initial round of voting. The winners of all the categories will be announced at the ZMR Awards Presentation and Show at the Joy Theater in New Orleans on May 7. We were planning on going to NOLA for the show and already had our hotel reservation when the nominees were announced so now it's going to be both entertaining and nail-bitingly nerve-wracking in equal amounts. It will be great to connect in real life with people we met a few years ago (when Wires Rosewood & Roots was nominated) and to meet more of the people who support New Age and Instrumental Music on radio.
In related news, reviewer extraordinaire Bill Binkelman has had a chance to review Eight Winds and put up his thoughts in Binkelman's Corner. To read Bill's thoughts on the CD, pop over to ZMR.
Now we're off to the grocery store to restock the fridge which is empty after two weeks away. More to come in the near future about our musical journey.
Cheers, Bob
bobardern.ca
